Saturday, March 19, 2016

Iraq snapshot

Saturday, March 19, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, another US service member dies in Iraq, there's still no progress in the never-ending Iraq War, a piece of trash supporter of Hillary Clinton decides to attack the wife of Bernie Sanders, and much more.

In Iraq, another US service member has been killed in the never-ending war.

The Combined Joint Task Force issued the following:

March 19, 2016Release #20160319-02FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Operation Inherent Resolve CasualtySOUTHWEST ASIA -- The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve can confirm the death of a Coalition service member in northern Iraq today as a result of enemy action.Further information will be released as appropriate.It is CJTF-OIR policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

A U.S. Marine was killed in a rocket attack by ISIS on a base at Makhmur in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Pentagon
Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed the death in a statement. He said
the Marine was "providing force protection fire support at a recently
established coalition fire base near Makhmur in northern Iraq."

Cook added that several other Marines were wounded, though he did not provide details on their conditions.

A senior Iraqi army officer in Makhmour said two rockets landed about
8:20 a.m. Saturday on the U.S. camp, a small, closely guarded facility
where American advisers have been based for several months helping Iraqi
army and peshmerga forces battle Islamic State fighters nearby and
preparing for an offensive to recapture the key Iraqi city of Mosul.

It was 13 years ago tomorrow that a U.S.-led coalition launched a series
of airstrikes in Iraq, dubbed “Shock and Awe,” which triggered the
beginning of the near-decade-long war. The legacy of the Iraq War and
its resurgence in the national conversation, especially now in the midst
of a particularly charged and vitriolic election year, are among the
urgent and resonant questions of Youngblood
(Atria), a smart and riveting new novel by Matt Gallagher, set in the
fictional town of Ashuriyah. Raised in Reno, Nevada, and now living in
Brooklyn, Gallagher is an Iraq veteran—his first book, Kaboom,
is a memoir that grew out of the blog he kept during his deployment (and
which was subsequently shut down by the U.S. military).

Unremarked upon in the coverage of the latest US military death in Iraq? That the death occurred on the 13th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

March 19 will forever be etched into the minds of the many millions who's lives have been utterly destroyed by the illegal invasion of #Iraq

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Some might expect THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, etc to note the anniversary but when you're celebrating a woman who voted for the Iraq War (Hillary Clinton), it's a little hard to note any reality.

So much takes place without comment.

Like Barack Obama's promise that there would be no US "boots on the ground."

Of course there are.

Or the President's promise that the US troops would not be in combat when they are.

The death also comes days after US Secretary of State John Kerry's ridiculous speech about the Islamic State in which he claimed ISIS was on the run.

The US government has been bombing Iraq with bombs dropped from war planes since August 2014. The daily bombing continued today with the US Defense Dept announcing:

Strikes in IraqRocket artillery, ground attack, bomber and fighter aircraft
conducted 25 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s
government:-- Near Al Baghdadi, four strikes struck two ISIL bed-down locations and two ISIL staging areas.-- Near Al Huwayja, a strike destroyed an ISIL anti-air artillery piece.-- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units.-- Near Hit, seven strikes struck an ISIL training camp, two
ISIL car bomb factories, an ISIL bomb factory, two ISIL tactical units,
destroyed an ISIL tunnel, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL supply cache, and an
ISIL car bomb.-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL bunker and two ISIL assembly areas.-- Near Mosul, six strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical
units and destroyed an ISIL assembly area, an ISIL supply cache, and
three ISIL vehicles, and damaged an ISIL-used bridge section and
suppressed an ISIL fighting position.-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar position and an ISIL vehicle.-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and suppressed an ISIL fighting position.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target.

All those bombings as well as John Kerry's blowhard claims and yet no progress to brag of.

The Iraqi government targeting the Sunni civilians, under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, led to the rise of the Islamic State -- a Sunni terrorist organization that got a foothold in Iraq because of this targeting.

And with the US assisting the Iraqi government today, what has changed?

There she is sitting with War Hawk Bully Boy Bush -- she was his 'work wife.' Seated next to them is his actual wife Laura Bush. Unlike Hillary, Laura Bush did not vote for the Iraq War or to send young men and women to their deaths.

THREE WAR CRIMINALS admire Clinton because she's loves war. No REAL progressive would support her. #WarHawk#Iraq

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She is disgusting.

So are many of her supporters.

Take pure trash US House Rep Luis Gutierrez. Today, the corrupt member of Congress most infamous for being a near dead ringer for Barney Frank did what?

Verbally attacked Jane Sanders.

The wife of Senator Bernie Sanders was in Arizona with activists registering opposition to Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 'tent cities.' Arpaio briefly spoke with Sanders who made her opposition known.

Because Jane Sanders is married to Senator Bernie Sanders and because Senator Sanders is vying with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Luis Gutierrez rose from the gutter to spew an attack on her.

In 2010, Gutierrez paid his wife, Soraida, $37,000 for services listed as account manager, fundraiser manager and treasurer."Soraida Gutierrez resigned from her successful, well-compensated, Wall
Street investment banking career last year to work full-time for the
Gutierrez for Congress campaign," Douglas Rivlin, the congressman's
press secretary, said in a statement. "In her capacity as treasurer and
fundraiser, she meets regularly with FEC officials, so her role is
hardly a secret and a matter of public record."From 2004 to
2009, one of Gutierrez's daughters, Omaira Gutierrez, was paid $4,270
for managing the campaign's accounts. His other daughter, Jessica
Gutierrez, was paid $600 in 2004 to assist with a fundraising project.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
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